Mike’s Linnets tenure starts on familiar territory
THE reign of new Burscough manager Leon Mike will begin on familiar territory. The Manchester-based manager faces his opening competitive game as Linnets boss away to Prestwich Heys on the opening day of the North West Counties Premier Division season on Saturday 30th July, kick off 3pm.
The Linnets first home game is a midweek one as Longridge Town travel to the Community on Tuesday 2nd August for a 7.45pm kick off.
Burscough have a right to not be best pleased with the fixtures because the vagaries of the fixture list mean that Burscough don’t have a home Saturday league game until at least September.
Although there are to be 42 games in the Premier Division this coming season, the league announced an initial batch covering the August period last week.
Burscough will have played seven league games by the end of August, making it a hectic and arguably season shaping period, especially when there is also a potential two FA Cup rounds to negotiate and certainly one, the FA are due to unveil the draw in the next week or so, so we should be able to share them with you next week.
The dates to note for Burscough fans are Saturday 6th August and Saturday 20th August.
Because Skelmersdale are now in a higher step in the football pyramid than Burscough this year they won’t enter the competition until Saturday 3rd September.
Skelmersdale supporters will further have to wait to begin their league season, which will start on Saturday 13th August and we await the release of those fixtures until after we have gone to press.
In the meantime, Skelmersdale do have one semi competitive game that does offer them the opportunity to grab some silverware when they take on Charnock Richard at their Mossie Park ground on Saturday 23rd July, kick off 3pm in the Reusch Champions Cup Final.
It is effectively a “Charity Shield” held by the North West Counties League annually, because Skelmersdale gained promotion they were invited to take part in what should a good encounter and will certainly have a lot more at stake than a preseason match, it will definitely be worth making the trip over the hill for likely the only “Parbold Hill Derby” between the two this season.
It doesn’t appear that Burscough have a pre-season game scheduled this week, Skelmersdale had one last night at home to Warrington Town and on Saturday visit local side Winstanley Warriors for a 2pm kick off, with no mid week game next week Skem supporters do need to note that Morecambe visit the JMO Sports Park on Saturday 16th July for a 3pm kick off.
Burscough have a home game on Saturday 16th July kick off 3pm, when Northern Premier League Division West, City of Liverpool will be the visitors for what could on interesting one because “The Purps” are expected to include a number of former Linnets players in the squad and do represent fairly strong opposition for Leon Mike’s team. This is followed by a game at home to First Division South Liverpool on Saturday 23rd August, kick off 3pm.